One Last Summer
by splashc
Summary: Four years after everyone left Izumisaka, and since Nishino left for France. Four years since everyone has seen each other. When fate throws obstacles and coincidences into their lives, how much will change?
1. The Rejection

"_I want to keep Nishino safe right now, so, sorry..."_

"_....Sorry."_

"_....Sorry."_

Toujo Aya was running, running a lot harder than she ever had before. There wasn't really a destination in mind. When she had heard that sentence, something inside of her had seemed to crumble away, leaving a hole that hurt- literally hurting her chest, and every beat of her heart seemed to send a new pulse of pain through her body.

She'd had to reply of course, she'd had to stop and talk to Satsuki. She'd ignored the pain as much as possible, until it grew to a level where she had quickly said goodbye to Satsuki and made a mad dash away from the bench, and away from the school and the bright lights of the school festival.

She had run past couples, not really seeing them, but recognizing their existence..past children and old people and other students she didn't really know. Now she was hurtling along a quiet street, where the only sounds were the chirping of crickets and her own labored breathing as she continued to run, without any real reason at all. She didn't quite know where she was at all. The night seemed very big and large, and the stars were the only thing that kept her from getting scared.

Why had she been running? It was not like it could help...or could you forget a painful moment if all you did was run away?

Despite the somewhat unreal feeling and the pain of rejection, oddly, Aya's thoughts were calm. Her eyes were red and overflowing with tears, her hair was knotted from the wind, and her lungs were burning for air. Her heart also felt like it was about to burst- though she couldn't tell whether it was from the rejection or from the endless running. But her thoughts stayed collected, although they were repeating the same words over again, and the same face stayed in her head. Maybe that was what came of being an author. Her brain was organized just like a story, just like her perfect schoolwork, just like that one notebook that had ultimately brought her to where she was now.

_Manaka-kun._

Toujo's legs finally gave out halfway across a park she didn't really recognize, and she collapsed onto her knees, still gasping for air.

_You said we would make movies together, always be together. Our big dream is quickly disappearing. Why are you getting so far away?_

Her lungs finally stopped burning, and she was able to stand up again- only to slip on the wet grass and fall right back down. That was a pretty normal thing for her, anyway. The normal occurrence of falling down, and the small pain that came when she hit her scraped leg against the ground, made her feel less like it was all a dream and more like it was reality.

Just when you wished it could have been a dream, it wasn't..

Blinking, Aya realized her vision was blurry- both of her contacts had come out sometime while she was running and crying. She dug into her skirt pocket and drew out her glasses, which she put on right away. The world blurred and then went into focus.

Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay...wait...Toujo? Is that you?"

Startled, Aya turned around. Ah. The uniform, the sandy hair and clear blue eyes..Amachi. He always did seem to turn up at moments like this.

"You're looking beautiful as always." He grinned and sat down on the damp grass next to her.

Aya had to laugh. At the moment with her knotted hair, red eyes and thick glasses, she was far from looking gorgeous. "Ah..how did you find me? This place is kind of out of the way..." she looked at her knees.

"I told you, Aya-chan! There is an unbreakable bond that connects us! No matter where you are, I can always find you and...oh," he said, finally noticing her tearstained face. "What happened?"

"Nothing.."

"Is it Manaka Junpei again?"

Aya's silence said more than her words would have.

"Aya, why do you keep loving him?"

"Ah..." she was silent for a moment. "He always..chases right for his dreams. He made the film club, with his dreams built into it, and he made everyone around him feel like their dreams were within reach as well..." Aya trailed off.

"He's never done anything for you!"

"That, that's not true! He was the first one to notice me, in my whole school..in my whole life!"

Amachi frowned. "I'm sure I would have noticed you, Aya. It's just pure chance that he got to you first, and you can never get him out of your head! It's always about that Manaka! He-"

A tear trickled down Toujou's cheek and Amachi broke off abruptly.

"I'm sorry, Toujou. I shouldn't have said that. Just cry, okay? No one will hear, and I don't care if anyone does."

Hesitantly, he reached out and stroked her knotted hair. It was still soft, despite being windblown. For once, he wasn't pushed away. Toujo didn't have her usual reaction of running away, and also a new thing: Amachi didn't make any comments to her about how she should just choose him. She was grateful for that small thing.

Her shoulders shook, and she covered her face with her hands. "Wa... Uwahhhh!" her whole body shook with the force of her crying, and tears streamed out from between her fingers."

_Manaka-kun...Manaka-kun!_

_Never again._

_No more films, no more talking, no more discussing movies and novels. Nothing. I can't reach you anymore._

_I can't reach you anymore!_

Toujou could feel Amachi's arm circling her shoulders as she continued to cry. It was warm. Much warmer than the tears that were pouring out of her eyes and filling her mouth with a taste of salt. They also were soaking Amachi's shirt, but he didn't seem to care.

That was the nice thing about Amachi. He loved her no matter what.

Maybe she was being greedy, using this love when she had just been rejected by the person she had loved since middle school. But she needed to be loved right now. He could ultimately only be her friend, but Amachi was probably the best one to be there for her at the moment.

When she finally stopped crying, she saw that Amachi's face was tight and carefully wiped of any 'd hurt him with all that crying for someone else.

"I'm sorry." she whispered. His face softened slightly and she leaned against his shoulder, needing a support. All the tears had left her as limp and weak-feeling as a noodle.

"It's okay...ah! You're all tired! You probably dehydrated yourself with all that crying!" Amachi jumped up and looked frantically around for his bag, in which he found a sealed water bottle. He twisted the stiff cap off and handed it to Aya. She gratefully took it and drank a large gulp of the water. She felt better almost instantly.

"Thanks.." she said again.

"Don't mention it... Aya?"

"What?"

"You look really pretty, even when you cry."

- - - - - - - - - -

_This is my first real attempt at a fanfiction, so please review! Feel free to be harsh, I don't mind._

_For some reason I'm having a creative week, so hopefully I'll get at least one more chapter up here before my creativity runs out, since I only get creative moments about once a year.. =/_

_Anyway, thanks for reading!_


	2. Reunion

Four years later

She couldn't see his face at first, which was disappointing. The bright summer sun bounced off of the nearby fountain, sending streaks of light through the air. Nishino Tsukasa was momentarily blinded by the glow.

When the spots of light finally faded from her eyes, Nishino saw the camera move away from the man's face, his eyes almost surprised- why? Maybe she'd changed? Tsukasa couldn't help but smile slightly and call, "Excellent!" down to him. "Fifteen minutes early!"

Manaka Junpei smiled back at her, and Tsukasa actually felt her heart jump. _He_ definitely had changed..what had happened to the nervous boy who had asked her out after a pull-up? Even in their last year of high school, he'd always been somewhat awkward. _We've all grown up...._

"Is that the first thing you say after such a reunion?" His voice snapped Tsukasa out of her thoughts.

"Well.." Nishino brushed her hair out of her eyes. "You've become mature, Junpei-kun." _And I didn't know what else to say._

The white skirt of her dress billowed in the wind, and as the sun came out from behind the clouds, Nishino had to blink a few times to get used to the light.

Manaka's smile looked so happy that it was almost painful for Tsukasa to watch him as he asked, "Did you watch the movie I sent you?"

"Yup." She could see that he was blushing slightly, which reassured her. He hadn't changed all that much, then.... "It was a great movie."

"Well...then, a question..." Manaka looked desperately hopeful. "It's a relationship that's now a clean slate, but..would you go out with me once again?"

Tsukasa finally smiled, and she could tell her smile was as painfully happy as his. _Nothing's changed._

"Yeah..I guess." she replied. "And will you, once again, excite me?" Nishino regretted saying that slightly after the words left her mouth... somewhat perverted, wasn't it? But it didn't matter. He knew what she meant, right?

Expecting a simple smile or a short reply, Tsukasa was somewhat confused when Junpei stood there silently, expressionless. _Oh no...was my reply that weird?_

"Um.." Fumbling for words to fix her mistake, Tsukasa's head suddenly jerked up as she heard a loud clatter. Her eyes flew wide open as Junpei threw aside his camera and charged up the stairs toward her.

"Ah! No, wait..." she cried as Manaka lifted her up and hugged her. Tsukasa smiled widely and finally laughed, leaning forward to return the embrace.

"So.." Nishino commented as Junpei set her down. "It looks like we're back to normal, hm?"

Junpei smiled. "It seems like it I guess. So, what should we do..now that we're dating again?"

Tsukasa bit her lip, looking off into the distance. "A date!" she exclaimed, looking back at Junpei. "We definitely have to go on a date. We never had enough of those, after all." After all, with how busy they'd both been, there hadn't been enough time to just be together.

"But, um...I don't know where we should go..." she admitted.

Her confusion was interrupted as Junpei snatched up her hand. "I know where we can go!" he said with a grin, pulling her toward the crosswalk at the street.

Tsukasa blushed slightly and hurried to catch up so she was no longer being pulled. "Okay." she squeezed his hand back as they headed out of the park.

The climb up the hill was luckily pretty short- only about 5 minutes or so- but Nishino kept slipping on the damp grass. _It's really hard to climb up a steep hill in heels and a skirt. _The third time she slipped, she nearly fell down the hill and had to grab onto Manaka's jacket to steady herself. After that, she slipped the white kitten heels off, stuck them in her bag and climbed in her bare feet. By the time they reached the top, Tsukasa was gasping for air.

"Sorry about that," Junpei apologized as he grabbed her hand and helped her up the last few yards and over the crest of the hill. He was also panting from the climb. "It's the only way to get up here...but look..."

Tsukasa had been going to not comment until she caught her breath, but when she looked she felt somewhat annoyed. "A grass hill and a highway?" _That climb was for this?_

Junpei laughed, grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face the other direction. "Nishino, you're looking back the way we came. Look this way."

Tsukasa was about to scold him for using her family name again, but when she looked she didn't quite feel like talking. As the sun was setting and twilight was beginning to dim the brilliant colors of the sky, the city lights made a wide band of silver dots against the sky. A couple windmills twirled off in the distance. The cicadas chirping and the murmur of the city somehow sounded good together.

A small breeze blew Tsukasa's blonde hair into her eyes, and she brushed it out of the way to see better.

"We came at exactly the right time," she heard Junpei comment.

Nishino grinned widely and impulsively turned and hugged Junpei. "Ah..Nishino?" she heard him ask in confusion. She hugged tighter, and felt him relax and hug her back. The glow of the sunset covered the couple, tinting them with a reddish-gold glow.

After they stopped embracing, the two of them sat on the grass, looking down at the city. Tsukasa yawned and leaned to the right, resting her head on Junpei's shoulder. The fiery sky gradually dimmed and finally faded to the deep blue of night, but neither of them moved or started to go back down the hill yet.

"This view is really good," Tsukasa commented with a sigh. "I'm glad you didn't bring me up this hill just to look at a highway."

She heard Junpei chuckle at that as she sat up and reached in her bag, her hand emerging with a piece of paper torn from a notebook. Letting go of Manaka's hand, she began folding the paper.

"A paper plane?" she heard him ask.

"Yup." Tsukasa smiled, holding up her finished paper airplane. "I've always wanted to do this."

As Junpei watched silently, Nishino tossed the paper plane up into the sky. It flew down towards the city until it was pushed up again by a current of air. The plane continued to fade into the distance until it was a white blob. A white dot. Gone.

"Look," Manaka commented. "The stars are coming out."

Tsukasa leaned back onto his shoulder. A gust of wind blew the long grass stems and various flowers, tickling her. The uncut stems reached almost halfway up her back. "Hm, I guess they are." she yawned. "You know, you called me by my family name earlier. You've got to stop that."

"Ah, sorry Nishino," Manaka replied with a yawn. "I guess old habits die hard."

"See, you just did it again!" Tsukasa sighed.

"But I kind of like your last name better. I'm so used to saying Nishino."

The sound of a smack resonated in the air.

"Owwww! Sorry, Nishi- um, Tsukasa?"

"Much better."

The sound of crickets chirping filled the summer night.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_Finally, the second chapter! I'm very sorry for not updating this story for so long. D= But there's finally another chapter, this one about my personal favorite couple from Ichigo 100%. ^ ^_

_Please review, I want advice! And I don't really mind harshness, as long as you don't tear me to bits. But hopefully that goes without saying.. Anyway, I'll try to update again soon, but since I have school too, it might be awhile. So anyway, enjoy the new chapter c:_


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